House Votes to Give Back Pay to Federal Workers

WASHINGTON—The House voted Saturday to provide back pay to furloughed federal workers once the partial government shutdown ends, the latest in a rapid-fire series of spending measures designed to minimize the effects of the closure.

The vote was 407-0. The White House has come out in support of guaranteeing retroactive pay, one of the few moments of agreement between the parties in the crisis.

The Senate doesn't yet have the agreement needed to approve the measure this weekend, and the timing of any final passage remained unclear.

Budget Battle

Despite the unanimous House move, there was little signal of any broader agreement on ways to end the shutdown, which reached its fifth day Saturday.

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) walked back to his office immediately after the vote, leaving House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) to explain at a news conference that Republicans were holding firm to their position.

Republicans have sought to delay or defund President Barack Obama's health-care law as a condition for reopening the government, something that Democrats have rejected. Republicans question whether Mr. Obama or Democrats are prepared to negotiate.

"This shutdown has been brought about by the president's unwillingness to sit down and talk with members of Congress," Mr. Cantor said. "This administration has been almost absent when it comes to discussions and working out our differences, and we're going to stay focused on trying to ease the pain of this shutdown."

Democrats criticized House Republicans for bringing piecemeal bills rather than a single measure to return all of the federal government to work. They said the Saturday measure meant that hundreds of thousands of federal workers would ultimately be paid despite being idle.

"We are going to pay all the federal employees, as we should, but we're going to pay them to stay at home," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.), summarizing what he said was the Republican policy. "It's an absolutely absurd position."

The vote came as House Democrats made another offer that showed little sign of being the magic bullet to break the impasse. Mrs. Pelosi said that if Republicans approve a bill to reopen the government temporarily and the parties open talks on a longer-term budget, the House Democrats would waive certain procedural rights during those future budget negotiations. A spokesman for Mr. Boehner didn't comment directly on the offer but said Democrats were blocking progress on reopening the government.

House lawmakers on both sides said the decision to make sure government workers get paid while being furloughed was the right one.

"Finally, a moment of decency," said Rep. Gerald Connolly (D., Va.), whose district has many federal workers. With the vote, "we alleviate the angst on whether there will be that paycheck whenever we get around to reopening the government."

Federal workers "shouldn't be the innocent pawns in the middle of a debate caused by us unable to work with the Senate," said Rep. Blake Farenthold (R., Texas), whose district is home to a naval air station. "We're ready, willing and able to talk but we need to ratchet down the rhetoric a little bit [and] make sure our employees get paid."

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed since Tuesday because Republicans and Democrats in Congress can't agree on the terms for keeping the government funded. The result has been the closure of national parks and less visible problems like a slowdown in home sales and refinancings, which typically can only be completed after the Internal Revenue Service provides lenders with tax forms to verify borrowers' income.

Republicans say Democrats appear to be unwilling to negotiate any terms for spending or debt levels. Democrats say they will open talks as soon as Republicans reopen the entire federal government and raise the U.S. borrowing limit, which is expected to hit a ceiling in mid-October unless Congress acts.

This happens every time, I want an extra paid vacation too. How our Congress and the President can cause a US Govt shutdown and then turn around and say we are going to retro you back pay as soon as you get to work, should be a criminal offense. Something is terribly wrong and we need to fix this fast.

Why should furloughed federal workers get paid if they are not working? If they are not getting paid, they can sign up for unemployment, just like the rest of the private market employees who have been suddenly, and unexpectedly furloughed.

I can only hope Reid is as dumb as this move is and not support it. If such is the case, this move would not have been so dumb after all, but brilliant!.

please give me one reason to vote for republicans next election. So far I have:

- republicans shutdown the goverment but receive their salaries- us the taxpayers still not get any services but we still pay taxes and the taxes are spent to back pay goverment workers even though we (the taxpayer) did not receive any services.- the promissed reduction in taxes / spending not even on the list of topics- Obamacare is implemented and going forward.- republican party looks like a joke even compared with democrats.- the party is driven by tea party and Ted Cruz. neither has any brains.

Another Tea Party/Republican SNAFU. Let's pay people to stay home average of $2,000. Per week per Gov't employee to stay home and sleep late. Way to go Sen Cruz. Lead your Tea Party down a box canyon and the say " What do guy wants want to do now ? Bizarre but not surprising for a Tea Party /Republican candidate and political strategy. Sen Cruz is a Harvard University graduate but he missed the class on how a Bill becomes a Law.

All 800,000 should have been permanently fired, plus 400,000 actual military personnel who are no longer needed thanks to technology and robotics. If the Europeans can do it, America should certainly have the balls to tackle its debts and do the same. Facing bankruptcy New Zealand did it a few decades ago and is now very much the better and prosperous because of it.

Brilliant Scam Idea for Government to embezzle money from the People "ACA act" then fine 50 mil people with the IRS at $200 per person . Due the Math ! "only the ACA will only pay for the care and awareness....* BUT not a cure* You will need an extension policy to be cured . Deception is the face of the Obama administration

What?!! Are we suppose to feel sorry for those that were furloughed, and compensate them for a temporary lay-off? Do employers in the private sector pay those they lay-off for their time away, if by chance they call them back? Do these parasites feel the pain when those in the private sector, due to their brain dead economic and societal policies, lose their jobs and their health care insurance while struggling to feed their families, and find jobs to make a life? Nope.

It's just like these psycho-pathological lawmakers voting and approving to subsidize government employees for healthcare but make those of us in the private sector pay and live the laws they create while exempting themselves. How much more can the American people take while our own government screws them any chance they get?

What kind of minds would re-elect these subjugating and oppressive tyrants??? They have abandoned those of us that make it possible for them to even have a job!!!

At least we don't have to listen to any tea-party rhetoric about controlling costs anymore. Since the vote in the house was 407-0 all of them have now embraced the Washington pay for non- performance mindset.

A few weeks of paid vacation at our expense.In private business they would be on furlough.They have been termed 'unessential' so the positions should be questioned.But, a government shutdown only means that 17% go home.This government is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO broken.

Clueless move here that will engender something more than annoyance from non-government workers. Precious few private-sector employees get more than five days of paid leave per year even as carefully scheduled; and disruptive events do not result in paid extra holidays. While public employees are given compensation at levels exceeding twice the non-government ones, our 'representatives' jump ahead to tend to their wounded spirits. When reality eventually sets in, we will have 20% fewer public employees with wages reduced by at least that amount. Their lifeboat is overcrowded.

I don't get paid for staying home when my work is slow or go home early. I have to use my PTO time if I want to get paid. Why can't gov't workers use some of their benifits during the shutdown??? It's not my fault!!!

It's amazing that republicans are 0-50 in trying to destroy the American Care Ac, randomly add it to the budget process and then act like the stand off is democrats fault. What if the Democrats did the same thing and said they'd only vote for the budget if republicans agreed to give all illegals citizenship. Nothing like the fringe right creating a huge problem and then arrogantly blaming everyone else. Treason.

Your Republicans in Congress have caved big time. They want to pay Federal workers even if they don't work, they want to reopen national parks, they want to restore other cut funding. The one thing they can't impact is ObamaCare, which is mandatory spending and will go forward regardless.

While both you and Soto go back and forth blaming the idiocy that goes on with both Conservatives and Republicans, take a dose of reality, a brief compendious look (Sundown in America) at what has happened in the corruption of capitalism the last 25 to 80 or so years:

"What is really happening is that Washington’s machinery of national governance is literally melting-down. It is the victim of 80 years of Keynesian error---much of it nurtured in the environs of Harvard Yard---- about the nature of the business cycle and the capacity of the state---especially its central banking branch--- to ameliorate the alleged imperfections of free market capitalism.

As to the proof, we need look no further than last week’s unaccountable decision by the Fed to keep Wall Street on its monetary heroin addiction by continuing to purchase $85 billion per month of government and GSE debt.

Never mind that the first $2.5 trillion of QE has done virtually nothing for jobs and the Main Street economy or that we are now in month number 51 of the current economic recovery--- a milestone that approximates the average total duration of all ten business cycle expansions since 1950. So why does the Fed have the stimulus accelerator pressed to the floor board when the business cycle is already so long in the tooth----and when it is evident that the problem is structural, not cyclical?

The answer is capture by its clients, that is, it is doing the bidding of Wall Street and the vast machinery of hedge funds and speculation that have built-up during decades of cheap money and financial market coddling by the Greenspan and Bernanke regimes. The truth is that the monetary politburo of 12 men and women holed up in the Eccles Building is terrified that Wall Street will have a hissy fit if it tapers its daily injections of dope.

So we now have the spectacle of the state’s central banking branch blindly adhering to a policy that has but one principal effect: namely, the massive and continuous transfer of income and wealth from the middle and lower ranks of American society to the 1 percent.

The great hedge fund industry founder and legendary trader who broke the Bank of England in 1992, Stanley Druckenmiller, summed-up the case succinctly after Bernanke’s abject capitulation last week. “I love this stuff”, he said, “…. (Its) fantastic for every rich person. It’s the biggest redistribution of wealth from the poor and middles classes to the rich ever”.

Why bother doing anything anymore? Our sinking country is beyond repair, no matter which party you put in charge now. The majority of Americans have elected a Marxist to run the country, and the basic legislative groundwork has been set to bring us there.

Brian, you are an idiot. Reagan started Americas' downfall and the Bushie Boys just furthered it to a collapse. Yep, all BEFORE that nasty black man took office. Are you from Alaska where you also can see Russia from your porch??

Exactly or what if Democrats wanted all guns banned for them to approve a budget? You can't govern a country like that I'm glad the Democrats are holding firm as this amounts to economic terrorism.

If a party does not like a law, pass a new law. A few dozen congressmen don't get to selectively decide which laws they like and don't like and destroy the economy unless the laws they don;t like are annulled. I am glad this Republican fiasco is failing miserably and I hope it results in them loosing the majority in Congress as they have proven that they can;t be trusted to do the bare minimum of maintaining the government of the people.

By the way, after reading some of your comments I have surmised that your as dumb as a fence post when it comes to common economic and societal sense.

Perhaps your educated beyond your own intelligence, much like the political academics in this destructive Administration, who sit around and drum up theories in their head, spring boarding off Marxist failed ideology, yet continue, never learning from history, repeating the same old mistakes, over and over and over and over again. As Marxism is collapsing worldwide our welfare Statist in Chief continues the Marxist march into economic and societal oblivion. Your of that tribe, aren't you Bob?

So the Republicans should end this farce then. The Democrats will not agree to any changes in the ACA as if nothing else it sets a very dangerous precedent for the congress engaging in economic terrorism rather than passing laws.

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